Skip to main content
Log in

Is the Constitution the Trap? Decryption and Revolution in Chile

  • Published:
Law and Critique Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We will examine the revolts, begun in October of 2019, and currently developing in Chile under three conjoined parts. First, we will not try to theoretically ‘tame’ the revolutionary creature, but rather to plug immanently into the energy of the ‘potentia’ of the revolutionary event. To this extent, we will highlight the shortcomings of a theoretical enterprise that intends to explain it in traditional terms or that thrives for a variant of simple ‘reformism’. Second, and consequently, we will describe how the concept of the constitution (and its practice) is the perfect product of coloniality. Hence, the concept of the ‘constitutional trap’ is not something unique to the Chilean experiment, but that the constitutional idea itself is the main pipeline of coloniality and the most sophisticated product in the contention of democracy. Third, and to encompass and give a particular direction to the previous topics, we will deploy the ‘theory of encryption of power’ and the concept of the ‘hidden people’ (or the people as a synecdoche) to explicate the Chilean phenomenon under a new light, where no past is irrevocable, and no future is necessary.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Term coined and developed by Chilean constitutionalist Fernando Atria that is the basis for ‘What Constitution? On Chile’s Constitutional Awakening’, Pardo-Vergara and Ansaldi, position article of this issue.

  2. In its most simple definition as the drive to reform existing institutions instead of abolishing them through a revolutionary event.

  3. Understood as Aristotle´s ‘Energeia’; for a clarification see Sanín-Restrepo (2016).

References

  • Coloquio Internacional. 2019. Prácticas Constituyentes: Constituciones, Imaginarios Políticos y Formas Democráticas de Vida. Critical Legal Thinking 17–18 December. Available at: https://criticallegalthinking.com/2019/12/09/practicas-constituyentes-practicing-constitutionalism-universidad-diego-portales-17-18-december-2019/. Accessed 17 Mar 2020.

  • De Landa, Manuel. 2008. Meshworks, hierarchies and interfaces. In Zero News Datapool. 18 August 2008. Available at: https://www.t0.or.at/delanda/meshwork.htm. Accessed 17 Mar 2020.

  • Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. 1987. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douzinas, Costas. 2013. Philosophy and Resistance in the Crisis. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dussel, Enrique. 1995. The Invention of the Americas, Eclipse of ‘the Other’ and the Myth of Modernity. New York: Continuum Intl Pub Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grandin, Greg. 2006. Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, The United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism. New York: Metropolitan Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hitchens, Christopher. 2001. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald, Angus. 2018. The Equivocation that Lies Like Truth. In Sanín-Restrepo (2018, p. 31)

  • Méndez-Hincapíe, Gabriel, and Ricardo Sanín-Restrepo. 2018. The Encrypted Constitution. In Decrypting Power, ed. Ricardo Sanín-Restrepo. London: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanín-Restrepo, Ricardo. 2014. Teoría Crítica Constitucional. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanín-Restrepo, Ricardo. 2016. Decolonizing Democracy: Power in a Solid State. London: Rowman & Littlefield International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanín-Restrepo, Ricardo (ed.). 2018. Decrypting Power. London: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanín-Restrepo, Ricardo. 2020. ‘Decrypting the City’. In: The Built Environment in Emerging Economies, ed. Amira Osman. Pretoria, SA: Tshwane University of Technology (In Press).

  • Schmitt, Carl. 2006. The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum. Trans. G.L. Ulmen. New York: Telos.

  • Stiglitz, Joseph. 2002. Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong, Josiah. 1891. On Anglo-Saxon predominance. Available at http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/readings/strong.html. Accessed 17 Mar 2020.

  • Truman Library. 1949 Background Essay on Point Four Program. Available at: https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/public/InternationalAid_Background.pdf. Accessed 17 Mar 2020.

  • Villarroel, Gilberto. 2006. La Herencia de los ‘Chicago Boys’. BBC Mundo. Available at https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_3192000/3192145.stm. Accessed 17 Mar 2020.

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Angus McDonald for meticulously revising and editing this text.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ricardo Sanín-Restrepo.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sanín-Restrepo, R., Araujo, M.M. Is the Constitution the Trap? Decryption and Revolution in Chile. Law Critique 31, 41–49 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-020-09261-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-020-09261-z

Keywords

Navigation